Are You Afraid of Change?

Change is inevitable, someone once said. Yet, look around and you’ll see businesses, organizations, families and individuals who resist change. We like same old and easily get comfortable staying in the same jobs, same houses, driving same cars, watching same shows, living same daily routines.

Unknown scares us, as it invades our security and pushes us out of our safety zone.

I’ve experienced most change resistance when working with large organizations (all of them – profit, nonprofit, and don’t get me started on government). But even small businesses and individuals aren’t immune against it.

Small business change

Here are a few examples I’ve seen in small business world:

working with the same team, even though they disappoint us or underdeliver

not raising prices instead of challenging our mindset and status quo

working harder and longer just to avoid changing what doesn’t work

sticking to old and ineffective forms of marketing just to avoid social media or other “new” ways of marketing

This list could go on, but you get the point, right?

If I had a closer look at your business, organization or life, I’m almost sure I’d be able to find some sort of “insanity” there. A place where you avoid bringing light and allowing change.

Change vs. failure

If change is inevitable, why in the world do we hold on to our “proven” old ways? If they’re working for you, great. But don’t be fooled. You can’t stop new from entering your world.

Let’s have a closer look at couple examples of great companies which missed the train by resisting change or not innovating early enough:

Nokia used to be a leader in mobile industry, but missed the train in smartphone market. They’re trying to catch up, but it might be too late… the time will show.

Kodak changed the face of photography, but due to lack of innovation was left behind. Biggest reason of their failure was not understanding their market.

Palm is yet another former industry leader that failed to listed to the market. They didn’t realize that people are looking for device that will combine voice and data services and lost to Blackberry and iPhone.

Sony failed with its eBook reader, even though it was superior to Kindle simply because they didn’t deal with legal issues and never invested into building a great shopping cart system.

Way out…

Above examples as well as countless others out there are the proof that you need to keep improving, tweaking, making your products and services better to not only grow, but to also stay away from being irrelevant.

Questions: Are you open to change? What’s standing in a way? Is your business open to feedback and ideas from current and past customers? Is change and innovation part of your business culture? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. I look forward to hear your thoughts on this topic!